Fluent Essays

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the sections in Bevan on job satisfaction (Section 6.2), conversation management (Section 7.2), and self-disclosure (Section 7.4). Also, if you are struggling with the questions review the supplemental documents in the “Resources” box below, where you will find advice and videos to help you think through the topics.ResourcesClick each source below:Week 3 Short Answer Paper AdviceWeek 3 Short Answer Paper Video ResourcesEngaging With Course ContentAvoiding PlagiarismIn this assignment, you will use the Short Answer Assignment template, and respond to three prompts to illustrate your knowledge of communication and job satisfaction, conversation management, communication and the importance of self-disclosure. For each question, your response must be 300 to 350 words.The Short Answer Paper assignmentMust be 300 to 350 words per answer in length and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.Must utilize an academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.Must utilize Bevan in each of the responses to the questions.Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Pape (Links to an external site.)r guide.Must include references at the bottom of the template that are formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications. beven_6.2_reading.docx .2_beven_reading.docx week_3_short_answer_assignment_template.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview 6.2 How Interpersonal Communication Can Enhance Professional Succe ss Though BPC tends to focus on how colleagues communicate with one another about busine ss and professional matters, interpersonalmessages and relationships among colleagues ar e also important aspects of BPC and are integral to workplace success. As we have seen,soci al support from our colleagues helps buffer against negative health effects that stem from work (Birmingham & HoltLunstad, 2018)and contributes to productivity and other constructive workplace outcomes (Wagner et al., 2015); also, employers recognize and seek outthe value of interpersonal co mmunication when hiring new employees. The next sections explore additional ways that i nterpersonalcommunication can enhance your success at work and your career advanceme nt. Professionalism The term professional is applied to occupations or activities related to work or careers that require certain skills, competence, or character. The related concept of professionalism refers to the principles of behavior and communic ation that are appropriate and effective in thesemore formal settings. Professionalism is an important soft skill in the workplace (Robles, 2012). The Center for Professional Excellence (CPE), which conducts an annual survey on professionalism in the workplace, reported in 2 015 (the last year the survey was conducted)that HR professionals and managers designate a number of components of professionalism, including being focused, punctual/attentive,h umble, diligent, and having communication skills. Many of these components are directly re lated to verbal and nonverbal communicationskills necessary to communicate with others i n business and professional settings. However, these skills are lacking in recent graduates: Themost recent annual NACE survey (2018) found that 89.4\% of students felt they were pr oficient in professionalism/work ethic but that only42.5\% of employers agreed. The communication skills discussed thus far in this text apply to professional settings just a s much as they do to other environments. However, the context of a professional environment, such as the college classroom or the w orkplace, imposes some specific requirementson the ways that individuals communicate. S ome of the most important requirements for conveying professionalism are outlined in thef ollowing sections. Many of the elements are central in business and professional settings b ut are important in our personal lives as well. James Woodson/Photodisc/Thinkstock We often use informal language when we have a familiarrelationship with someone, but for mal language should beused in academic and professional settings. Formal Language Formal language is more careful, articulate, and mannered than everydayspeech. It is used t o express serious thought and is clear, accurate, and notoverly emotional. As we noted in C hapter 4 when discussing verbalcommunication, formal language is the standard and appro priate form ofcommunication in the academic world, in most professional settings, withclie nts and customers, in professional and technical writing, and in publicspeaking situations. Formal language avoids idioms, popular slang, biasedlanguage, and verbal fillers such as “li ke.” Recall from Chapter 4 thatbiased language includes racist, sexist, ablest, and homopho bic language,so it is wise to consider how others might prefer to be described and becultura lly sensitive when selecting terms that others may find demeaning.In these ways, using for mal language conveys professionalism and theprinciple of taking responsibility for how yo u communicate that weintroduced in Chapter 1. If we have established a familiar relationship with someone, we often useslang expressions in our conversations, emails, and texts, and we worryless about using correct punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. Itcan be argued that everyday conversations, social network posts, textmessages , and personal emails have conditioned us to respond quickly and briefly to messages via both mediated an d face-tofacechannels. Specifically, Larry Rosen and his colleagues (2010) found that individuals wit h some or no college education who used more brieflanguage in their electronic interaction s (called textisms) also created formal writing that was of lower quality. This was also the c ase forindividuals with some college education who sent more text and instant messages. A s a result of using more of these textisms, when wemust deliver an oral presentation at wor k or send a well-written letter or email to a customer, we may be unsure how best to proceed.Failing to recognize the necessit y of a more formal communication style in a professional setting is a significant mistake tha t people make inthe classroom and workplace. However, formal communication matters: Poor verbal skills during an interview, including incorrect grammar, often have negativeconsequences for job candidates (CPE, 2012) and ca n leave a bad impression on coworkers or clients. So, it is wise to write (e.g., usegrammar a nd spell checks, avoid casual language, etc.) and speak (e.g., use mutuallyrecognized jargon instead of slang, do not speak inhashtags or abbreviations, etc.) in class a nd at work more formally than you communicate via text and on social media. In sum, it is a goodidea to treat education and work environments as formal language environments in w hich you put your best professional foot forward. Integrity Plagiarizing, lying, cheating, missing deadlines, and not doing what you say you will do are behaviors that demonstrate a lack of integrity.Crucial for both personal and professional su ccess, integrity involves behaving and communicating honestly and ethically, being true to your word, and honoring your commitments. Having integrity reflects two of our competen t interpersonal communication principles: takingresponsibility for your communication be havior and respecting others and yourself. Business executives rank integrity as the mosti mportant soft skill in the workplace (Robles, 2012), and Indeed.com (n.d.) lists integrity as an important soft skill that employers seek in jobcandidates. Lack of integrity affects your r eputation and undermines others’ trust in you and thus negatively affects your professional ism. Itis extremely difficult to restore trust in a relationship once it is broken. Plagiarism, for example, is an important example of an integrity violation. You commit plagi arism when you present someone else’s wordsor ideas as if they are your own. In other wo rds, you must give the original source of an idea the proper credit, or you are being dishone stand unethical by presenting someone else’s work— be it their writing, data, thoughts, or even answers on an exam— as if you did the workyourself. Plagiarizing can range from buying someone else’s paper on the Internet and submitting it with your name on it to using your ownpaper in multiple cou rses without informing your instructors. Allowing someone to copy your exam answers is a lso plagiarism, as is notparticipating in a group project but taking credit for the final produc t. We tend to think of plagiarism as just an academic integrity violation, but many of these exa mples can extend to the business world as well.For example, what if you worked really har d on an idea that you had for a new product idea at your company, but your colleague, who youhad confided in about your idea early on, presented it to your boss first as their own? Y ou would likely feel betrayed, angry, and evenviolated. That is how someone else might feel if they discovered that another person was presenting their hard work as their own withou t itbeing properly credited to them. How do we ensure that we are not committing plagiarism? In academic settings, every univ ersity has an academic integrity policy that youcan familiarize yourself with. Course syllabi also frequently spell out what plagiarism is, and your course instructor is always happy tod iscuss how to avoid plagiarizing before you begin working on a project or when a paper is s till in draft form. In the workplace, be clearabout which contributions were made by which team members in a group project, and be careful who you share a “big idea” with if it mayb e proprietary later. Always try to put ideas in writing (even email) early on to establish their provenance. Respect for Others As we mentioned in Chapter 1, respect is one of the principles of competent interpersonal c ommunication. Respect for others is alsoimperative for success in your personal and profes sional life. Be considerate of others by using respectful language, being polite, and beingenc ouraging. Someone who is respectful also appreciates diversity, values differences among c oworkers, avoids biased language andattitudes, and calls people by the terms and names th at they prefer to be called. Additionally, communicating with respect will aid you inachievin g your goals—including those in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for example— as well as in building and maintaining positiverelationships with coworkers and classmates that render it easier to complete school- and work-related goals. Over the past few decades, language in professional settings has evolved to replace sexist a nd other biased terms with more inclusivelanguage (see examples in Table 6.1). Using mor e inclusive language demonstrates respect for others, which reflects professionalism. Table 6.1: Replacing sexist or biased language with inclusive terms Sexist or biased term Inclusive term businessman business owner, business executive, cancer victim; AIDS victim cancer patient; person with AIDS chairman chairperson or chair confined to a wheelchair uses a wheelchair Congressman Congressperson Eskimo Inuit or Aleut fireman firefighter freshman first-year student Indian (when referring to U.S. indigenous peoples) Native American or specific tribe policeman police officer man or mankind people, humanity, or the human race man hours working hours man-made manufactured, machine-made, synth manpower personnel or workforce Negro or colored African American or Black old people or elderly senior citizen, mature adult, older ad Oriental Asian, Asian American, or specific cou postman or mailman postal worker or mail carrier steward or stewardess flight attendant suffers from diabetes has diabetes to man to operate, to staff, to cover waiter or waitress server Collaboration It is common in classrooms and in the workplace to form work groups, project teams, task f orces, committees, and other groups toaccomplish tasks. Success in team efforts requires g ood interpersonal communication skills and the ability to collaborate, or to workcooperati vely with others to accomplish goals. In order for a professional team to successfully produ ce a desired outcome, theircommunication encounters must involve planning, delegating, a nd collaborating in a way that is shared and agreed upon by the group.Thus, being collabor ative is a final integral component of professionalism. Professional Reputation The verbal and nonverbal messages that you use in the workplace or the classroom can affe ct your reputation. Emily Bennington and SkipLineberg (2010), authors of Effective Immedi ately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job, state that in many instanc es,people’s professional reputations are not destroyed by one or two major errors. Instead, their reputations are chipped away over time bycontinual communication mistakes. Your p rofessional reputation refers to how much professionalism your clients and colleagues pe rceiveyou to have. Some specific mistakes can negatively impact your professional reputati on, including email errors and communication inmeetings. These mistakes are discussed in the following s ections. E-Mail Errors Professional reputations are frequently harmed by the errors people make with email messages. Everyone makes an occasional mistake,but consistent errors in punctuation , grammar, spelling, and sentence structure create negative impressions among people who read youremails, as these errors can be signs of poor judgment, lack of care, sloppiness, or laziness. Se nding personal messages such as jokes orchain letters, using biased or offensive language, a nd including abbreviations that may not be understood by others are other common email problems that can affect an employee’s professional reputation. Sending inappropriate messages on work computers can be harmfulto your career as well; they are usually a viola tion of organizational policies. Misunderstandings are also frequent in email because the tone of the communication is often difficult to determine. The short, infor malstyle of many email messages can be interpreted by a recipient as terse or rude. It is best to carefully proof read each email that you sendto your professional recipients and ensure that its content is clear and ea sily understood. Emails are also more efficient and more likely tobe understood when the sender provides a c lear, descriptive title for their content and starts a new email chain when the topic haschanged. Such small e-mailrelated actions can go a long way in moving all parties on the email chain toward achieving shared meaning,one of our competent interpersonal communi cation principles from Chapter 1. Communication in Meetings When you communicate in workplace meetings, you must be sensitive to the organization al culture, or how an organization’s mission,values, and attitudes are translated into comm unication policies and practices (Eisenberg & Riley, 2001). Similar to societal cultures,work place cultures dictate what an organization’s workers perceive as appropriate, normal, and accepted. In your next meeting, observethe practices of the other participants using what y ou have learned thus far in this course as a guide. For example, how is the powerdistance b etween managers and subordinates communicated? Do managers sit at the head of the tabl e to emphasize the distance, or dothey mix in at different spots with subordinates to flatten out the power distance? When beginning at an organization, it is wise to seekanswers to th ese questions. In meetings, follow cultural norms, know when it is prudent to speak up or t o remain silent, and know howmuch information to share. When the meeting leader asks, “ That’s about it. Any questions?”, it might be an invitation to ask about anythingyou did not understand. However, it might also be a ritual to end the meeting, and no response is expec ted or appreciated, depending onyour organization’s culture. Knowing these cues and how to respond to them comes with observation and experience. New employees are often ambitious or eager to make an impression and may think that the y will be judged negatively if they sit through ameeting without saying anything. To be usef ul, however, contributions in meetings need to be thoughtful and relevant and have a stron gfoundation (Wolgemuth, 2010). When you are in a meeting, be attentive and ask questions when critical issues need clarification, but bewary of interjecting unless you have somethin g important to add. In a new work environment, analyze the responses of others to determi nethe type of response that is effective and appropriate in each situation. Some organizatio ns encourage open and honest dialogue aboutissues; others do not. Knowing the expectatio ns of your workplace will help you assess how to behave in meetings. Interrupting others, embarrassing them, or focusing on issues that are relevant just to you i n a meeting can also negatively affect yourprofessional reputation. It is crucial to support y our boss and coworkers in public settings. Make sure your loyalty is thoughtful anddelibera te, however, not just blind allegiance (Wolgemuth, 2010). Job Satisfaction Our professional success not only depends on how professional we are to others, but on ho w we feel about our jobs. One way to assessyour perception of your job is via job satisfacti on, which is your personal evaluation of how much you enjoy and are content with yourem ployment situation (Wheeless, Wheeless, & Howard, 1984). Any number of factors can cont ribute to how satisfied you are with your job,including the number of hours you work, the a mount of money you make, and the number and type of job responsibilities you have. Inadd ition, research has found that a major component of job satisfaction is the BPC in which you take part, including both verbal andnonverbal messages. We explore how some of these m essages are related to job satisfaction in the next sections. Verbal Messages What is said in business and professional settings can increase or decrease an employee’s j ob satisfaction. In general, organizations thatstress open communication and that are willin g to share information have more satisfied employees. In addition, communication between superiors and subordinates is one major verbal communication contributor to subordinate s’ job satisfaction. For example, Teven (2007)found that when supervisors used positive or prosocial messages— such as being friendly and showing that they like their subordinates— to convey their power, subordinates were more satisfied than when antisocial power mess ages, such as those that control or punish thesubordinate, were employed. Conflict is also an influential element in the workplace (De Dreu, van Dierendonck, & Dijkst ra, 2004). For example, unresolved conflict andhow it is expressed has an impact on the org anizational climate (Hample & Allen, 2012) and is a major reason that employees leave thei rjobs (Chen, Zhao, Liu, & Wu, 2012). The following lists specific research findings about em ployee job satisfaction. • • • Job satisfaction is higher in companies that encourage employees to cooperate and collabor ate in conflict situations (Choi, 2013). Job satisfaction is lower in businesses where conflict is dealt with via active confrontation ( Choi, 2013). Compromising when in conflict is positively related to job satisfaction (Chen et al., 2012). • • • • Constructive conflict cultures may reduce employee burnout, making employees more satis fied with their jobs (Choi, 2013). Employees are less satisfied with their jobs in destructive conflict cultures, which may incr ease employee burnout (Choi, 2013). Employees with close friends at work have 50\% higher job satisfaction (Rath, 2006). Teamwork (as opposed to just collaboration or cooperation) promotes decreased turnover and burnout in health and social careworkers (Kaiser, Patras, & Martinussen, 2018). Based on these findings, how we verbally engage in conflict with our colleagues— using positive, constructive messages versus negative,destructive ones— is associated with job satisfaction. Thomas Barwick/Stone/Getty Images Nonverbal immediacy and chronemics are two specificnonverbal communication concepts related to job satisfaction. Nonverbal Messages In addition to verbal communication, a variety of nonverbal messageshave been associated with job satisfaction. Nonverbal immediacyinvolves a collection of specific nonverbal mes sages such as eye contactand smiling that together increase your feelings of closeness with anotherperson. We tend to be drawn to those who use nonverbal immediacy, andthis can c ontribute to job satisfaction. For example, Teven (2007) foundthat when superiors commu nicated higher nonverbal immediacy to theirsubordinates, the job satisfaction of subordina tes increased. Superiorswho are viewed as nonverbally immediate by subordinates are also seenas trustworthy, caring, and competent (Lybarger, Rancer, & Lin, 2017). Time, or chronemics, is another nonverbal message that is related to jobsatisfaction. Dawna Ballard and David Seibold (2006) found that multipleelements of time predicted e ... Purchase answer to see full attachment